Two brothers named as Brussels attackers

Details are emerging about the men who carried out the deadly bomb attacks in the Belgian capital Brussels on Tuesday, and their 31 victims.

Police continued to hunt the fourth suspect yesterday, whose identity is unknown, but all three men who succeeded in blowing themselves up were named.

Two of the attackers who targeted Brussels Zaventem airport were named as Brahim el-Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui.

The third attacker, who appears besides the pair in a CCTV photo from the airport, is believed to be on the run after he failed to detonate his explosives.

The fourth bomber, who struck the Maelbeek metro station, was named as Khalid el-Bakraoui, Brahim’s brother.

The attacks, which killed 31 people and wounded hundreds more, were claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Al Jazeera said there was speculation in the media that there were more people involved in the attacks than are currently being pursued.

“They appear to suggest there is CCTV footage from the Maelbeek station of Khaled el-Barkaoui seen talking to another person at the station,” he said about reports in the De Standaard newspaper.

“The speculation is that the other person is connected in some way with the events that took place.”

At least one of the attackers, Brahim el-Bakraoui, was detained near the Syrian border in Turkey in June last year on suspicion of being a foreign fighter.

Information about those affected by the attacks has begun to emerge with the dead and wounded coming from around the world.

They included Adelma Tapia, who died in the blasts at Zaventem airport. The Peruvian national was travelling to meet her sister with her Belgian husband and twin daughters, who all survived, her brother told reporters.

American survivor, Mason Wells, escaped the attack on the airport with injuries to his lower body. The 19-year-old said he was in Boston during the marathon bombing in 2013 and in Paris as ISIL attacked the city in November.

“He was very close to the bomb he said when it exploded. It’s a miracle that he made it through as easy as he did with lower leg injuries and some shrapnel metal burns, light, minor burns,” said Chad Wells, Mason’s father.

At least 16 of the victims are at Leuven University Hospital where two of those undergoing treatment are children aged five and three. Medical teams are also trying to save 10 patients in intensive care.

“We hope that we can have all the victims surviving their injuries, but they will all have disabilities,” said Dr. Stefaan Nijs, a senior surgeon at the hospital.